Sunday, December 22, 2013

Suja Juice Cleanse Review

I decided to try the Suja juices because they sell them at Whole Foods and I wanted to do something to reset my body after filling it with alcohol and food during last week's trip to Vegas. Online, they offer a 1, 3 or 5 day cleanse but they also sell it at Whole Foods, which is much cheaper because you don't have to pay for shipping. It's still not cheap, but you save $80 in shipping costs alone! Since you can just buy it per bottle at Whole Foods, I decided to do it for 2 days, over the weekend, when not much was going on. Originally I had wanted to do the Sambazon cleanse from Costco because it's super cheap and you still get to eat but apparently Costco is not carrying them until January?!?? (I asked them on Twitter)

Again, most people do this for 1, 3 or 5 days (a lot of the reviews I read were for 3 days), but I did it for 2.

Ready to go

Day 1

I set my phone alarm for every 2.5 hours starting at 7am to remind me to drink all 6 juices. I also consistently drank water throughout the day.

7:00am

I woke up at 6:30am Saturday because I had to work and had a customer call at 7am. I should have gone to bed at 10pm instead of 12:30 but... what are you gonna do. Instead of my usual coffee I started with a cup of warm water and lemon to alkalize the body, a little while later I had the "Glow" juice. Apple, cucumber, celery, mint, kale, spinach, collards. It was really tasty and refreshing.

9:30am

I was on another call and grabbed the "Fuel" juice out of my fridge. This one tasted like carrot juice but the addition of orange, apple, pineapple, lemon, and turmeric made it quite delicious.

12:00pm

I was getting pretty hungry by this point so it was a relief that it was time to drink "Purify". Whoa, holy beets batman. LOL. This one is carrot, apple, celery, cucumber, beet, and lemon but the beet taste is pretty powerful. Luckily I don't hate beets.

This one wasn't bad, but the other 2 were better. "Glow" is still the winner but I was most excited about the upcoming "Vanilla Cloud", with coconut, honey, almonds, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg - doesn't it sound delicious?!?

At this point I was starting to miss coffee, I was definitely glad I decided to only do 2 days because I was feeling sluggish...

2:30pm

I decided to watch Fat Sick & Nearly Dead again for inspiration. I think Joe Cross is adorable! Must be the accent. I started getting sleepy while sitting on the couch and was about to take a quick nap when my alarm went off for Juice #4, "Fiji". This one has: fuji apple, cucumber, celery, kale, spinach, collards, lemon-ginger. This one kind of reminds me of "Glow". Nap time!

5:00pm
My nap lasted all of 10 minutes due to getting another call, but it surprisingly helped a little, I wasn't as groggy as I was earlier. Also, between the last juice and this one I had a handful of almonds. The almonds really helped as I finally didn't feel hungry for the first time all day. There are a few things that they consider "acceptable" cheats: fruits and veggies, half an avocado, baked sweet potato, and broth-based soups. I thought I saw almonds on there but I guess I made that up. Still seems acceptable to me. I'm also not as cold as I have been all day, maybe because my stomach is finally digesting something. Before that, I had had a sweatshirt on, the heat up to 74 and was under a blanket...

Dinner time! The juice of the hour is "Green Supreme". Apple, kale and lemon, pretty simple. It's really good and refreshing. Almost Vanilla Cloud time!

7:30pm

Finally, it's time for Vanilla Cloud. It was pretty delicious, but I think I hyped it up too much, it wasn't like "OMG the most amazing thing I ever tasted". I ended up falling asleep on the couch at 9:30pm. Do I know how to party on a Saturday night or what?!

Day 1 cheats: 8 almonds

Day 2

9:45am

I must have needed sleep because I let myself sleep in until 8:30am, 11 hours! Felt good to finally sleep in, however I woke up hungry and with a headache. Instead of trying to let it go away naturally which never seems to work for me I took 2 Advil and downed a glass of water. I usually go to a yoga class at 10am, and I had wanted to run some errands afterwards so I thought I'd better drink the first juice as close as possible to 10am. I started off with some warm lemon water and then brought the "Glow" with me and drank it on my way to yoga. I got to the gym at 9:50 and they told me yoga was already full. What?!? I guess that makes sense because the group exercise room at this gym is pretty tiny and you end up doing yoga with like 2 inches of space around you. He told me another gym a few miles away had a 10:15 class so I went over there to try my luck and luckily I got in.

2:15pm

After yoga I went to Target and did some Christmas shopping and went to the nail salon, it took longer than I expected. I had planned on going to the grocery store for a couple of things but by this time I was starving and my juice schedule was all thrown off, I still had 5 juices to go! I got home and drank "Fuel" and had half an avocado and a handful of almonds. Oh and a pear slice. Ahhh, much better. At that rate I would have to drink another juice every hour...

3:30pm

Beet time! I started my food prep for the week, I had been dreading this all weekend because I thought it would be super difficult to cook all this food that I can't eat. Just as I started to get hungry it was time for juice #3, "Purify". Drinking a juice every hour now seemed feasible. I really like how each bottle shows exactly what is put into it. Only 1/2 a beet in this drink but it definitely does not go unnoticed.

4:45pm

Drank "Fiji" while I cooked. I was cooking and chopping up all the ingredients for the Butternut Squash Chili and it was REALLY hard to cook bacon and not eat it. That's willpower right there!

6:15pm

"Green Supreme" time. Yummy! The chili is simmering and I julienned some zucchini to make Zucchini Chicken Pasta.

8:30pm
Food prep done! I baked a pound of chicken breast, julienned the zucchini, vitamixed the pesto, baked sweet potatoes, made the chili, and made coconut chia seed pudding for breakfast for the next 2 days (recipe coming soon). I also had to run out to the store to pick up a few things. I drank Vanilla Cloud a little later then I intended to. I also ate a walnut and an artichoke heart while I was chopping them for the zucchini pasta. Yes just one of each... haha. After all that food prep I drank Vanilla Cloud, laid on the couch and caught up on DVR.

The next morning I woke up and ate the coconut chia seed pudding I had made the night before along with a cup of coffee. Honestly the pudding was not that good, it was little too sweet and the consistency was like melted frosting so I'm not posting the recipe, but it had coconut milk, protein powder, vanilla extract and chia seeds. Monday night we had a work event and I ended up eating lava cake for dessert plus had a glass of wine. Oops! Tuesday through Thursday I ate fairly well and went to Crossfit all 3 nights. The juices were really good and nutritious and I may keep a couple on hand for a quick (and tasty) infusion of fruits and vegetables. I don't know if I'd do a full cleanse again, I like food too much, but it did help me get back on track (aside from Monday night).

Tangent: I haven't been running hardly at all (except whatever we do in Crossfit) but over Thanksgiving my best friend and I did
our yearly Thanksgiving morning jog around Lake Merritt and I killed my
record according to Runkeeper. At that rate, I should be able to run a 30
minute 5K soon, something I have never done before. Since I haven't been
running I'm going to chalk it up to Crossfit and overall eating
healthier. Yay!